The Importance of Process Control in the Cannabis Industry

The Importance of Process Control in the Cannabis Industry

Process control and hands-on testing is the future of the cannabis industry.

Entering the cannabis industry has become a rat race. Every entrepreneur, inventor, and idea-person is at a dead sprint to be the create a product that boasts being the first of its kind. While being first is important, the best way to have a successful product in any industry is to create the best possible physical manifestation of our idea. Process control from product development to manufacturing is crucial to reaching these heights in the cannabis industry.

It doesn’t matter if a company is planning to build a complete cultivation, develop a topical salve, or bake a delicious edible; process control will play a key role. The first step in a hands-on approach to product development is to understand the full chemical composition of the flowers, or start materials, used to create the edible, wax, or balm.

The best start materials will come from a grow operation that is utilizing in-house testing. If the cultivation does not use in-house testing then it is wise to always check that they display test results alongside their flower that is from the same batch, and not a different batch of the same strain. At the very least, do not use any start materials that are not accompanied by the flowers. Any cannabis that is going to be distributed to people should, at the very least, be tested for pesticides, contaminants, and potency.

There are some slight issues with current laboratory testing procedure. The problem is that cannabis is not a homogenized plant. This means that each flower on one cannabis plant could very well test with highly varying potency. That means that testing one flower in a ‘homogenized’ batch might not provide potency results anywhere near the average of the rest of the plant or batch. One who is less ‘in the know’ might ask why not test every flower nugget? The problem is that most testing requires sample preparation that destroys the flower completely.

Luckily, there is a new technology coming to the market that can provide homogenized testing on this heterogenous plant. Cannabi Tech has developed an in-house testing unit that can test an entire batch of dry cannabis flowers for cannabinoid potency. There is no sample prep necessary, the flowers are actually barely touched by human hands.